ECODAN ASHP - how do I run the curve but turn down at night for quiet time?

Hey @Dannymo

Welcome to the Forum!

Sounds like a great question, especially as it’s getting a bit colder out there.

I wonder if any of our other Ecodan owners have any insights or tips of their own on this.

@Ecodanwarrior @James_N @amanda1 @New ASHP @hambrook 

There’s also a good few other topics on Ecodan set ups that could be helpful here:

Hi @Dannymo   You don’t want to be effectively turning the Ecodan off overnight - . If you turn it off it will have to run for ages to get back up to temperature. People seem to make the mistake of thinking the fan is running permanently unless you have it on a timer - but in fact, though it is technically “on”, the fan only needs to run when the internal temperature or the DHW temperature drops below the temperature you have set. You should have an internal remote controlled thermostat on your wall inside somewhere, which should be paired with the FTC unit on the Ecodan (“the Indoor Unit). It’s best to have a single zone not multiple zones, and to keep your desired internal temperature fairly consistent not a big discrepancy between day and night. Adjust up or down by no more than a degree or so each way. For example if you want your house to be roastingly hot at 22 degrees in the evenings, then set the thermostat to 22 degrees at about 6pm and then flick it down to 21 degrees overnight ie set it back - and back up again at 6pm the next day, etc, . NOTE THAT the hotter you like your house in the evenings and the colder you like your house overnight, the harder the ecodan will have to work in the mornings or whenever, to get back to your desired temperature, and the more £££ it will cost to run. It’s best to keep the differential between your preferred high temperature and your preferred low temperature as narrow as possible. My Ecodan is running in Room Temperature Control mode (ie Auto Adapt) rather than WeatherCurve Compensation. I have NO timed settings. If I  had timed settings then my ASHP would be guzzling electricity trying in vain to get back to the required temp, as the outside temperatures where I live are below zero frequently at night and in daytime also in December/January. My Ecodan set up is relatively new and may not be optimum but it is doing very well at the moment, though if you had gas before you will find electricity bills are a ahock to the system. 

@Dannymo, you may be part way there if you are setting the timer in the Ecodan controller. You can see how to add setbacks here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xme0HSZh1A. These work when running in room temperature mode, aka auto adapt - in weather compensation mode the system is not paying any attention to the internal temperature. If you have a non-mitsubishi thermostat it is trickier as the system won’t ‘know’ the temperature is too low and work harder to raise it.

With auto-adapt if there is too large a difference between actual and desired temps when a change is set then the pump will be pushed hard to raise the temp as fast as possible, at the expense, literally, of efficiency. Ecodanwarrior’s advice is right, keep the changes, particularly the changes back up small. I have a five hour, two degree drop at 1am, then raise it again by 1 degree at 6am and another degree at 9am. This hopefully avoids the more inefficient parts of the cycle – most of the dips in temp at night, and defrosts of the unit – but only requiring a slight increase in running power in the morning.